tissue expression of CD10 protein in colorectal carcinoma: correlation with the anatomopathological features of the tumor and with lymph node and liver metastases

background: The reduced expression of CD10 may be related to unfavorable prognosis of patients with colorectal carcinoma. The authors analyzed the tissue immunostaining of CD10 protein in colorectal carcinoma and its relationship to clinicopathologic features. Method: In 130 patients submitted to colorectal carcinoma surgery, a tissue microarray block was obtained from the tumor and adjacent non-neoplastic mucosa and submitted to immunohistochemistry with monoclonal antibody CD10. The immunostaining was evaluated by semi-quantitative method, with stained cell count in percentage. The results were related to the location, anatomopathological features, presence of lymph node and hepatic metastases and TNM staging of the colorectal neoplasm. The statistical analysis was performed with the Mann-Whitney, Kruskal-Wallis and Fisher exact tests. results: The expression of CD10 marker was higher in colorectal tumor tissue than in adjacent non-neoplastic mucosa (p<0.0001) and was higher than in exophytic lesions (p=0.04). The expression of CD10 protein was not associated with other clinical and pathological aspects of colorectal neoplasm. Conclusions: The expression of CD10 protein was more intense in tumor tissue of colorectal carcinoma than in adjacent non-neoplastic mucosa and was related to the exophytic appearance of the tumor.